By Susan Redden
sredden@joplinglobe.com
GALENA, Kan. — The help of area students was sought Thursday, and now residents, businesses and others will be asked to join in a project aimed at attracting an ultra-high-speed broadband network to the region.
Google Inc. is planning to test the broadband network in one or more locations in the country, and local communities, chambers of commerce and schools will work together in an effort to make the Joplin area one of those sites.
The announcement for the project came at a new conference at Galena High School, after students from high schools and colleges shared a pizza lunch and discussed the venture’s potential.
“It would bring service 100 to 1,000 times faster than we have today, and it would be a great opportunity for the whole area,” said Mark Morris, director of information services for the city of Joplin, Mo.
Officials said the regional nature of the effort could make it stand out in the nationwide search being conducted by the company involving communities of at least 50,000 and up to 500,000 people.
Joplin’s official population is just less than the 50,000 mark, and Morris noted that getting any adjoining community involved would allow a local application to meet the competition’s population requirement.
“We wanted everyone to join,” he said. “We’re crossing community, county and state boundaries, and we think that’s a unique opportunity. It will take everyone getting involved to make it happen.”
Officials representing communities including Columbus and Pittsburg, Miami, Okla., and Lamar and Carthage, Mo., were on hand, with several citing the possibilities of a Google network that would deliver service over home connections.
“The potential in areas like medical diagnosis and distance learning would be incredible,” said Larry Eller, community development coordinator in Miami.
Mark Turnbull, economic development director for Pittsburg, said getting the service “would be a huge service for existing businesses and a tremendous tool to attract new companies.”
Google announced the competition Feb. 10 and set a March 26 deadline for communities to provide information that will be used to evaluate where the networks will be constructed. The information is to include a response by a local government interested in having its community serve as a trial location, and responses by other interested parties explaining why the trial should be held in the community.
A name is being sought for the local campaign. The title and other elements will be based on discussions Thursday among the students, who came from 14 high schools and three colleges, according to Tina Gaines, director of telecommunications at Empire District Electric Co.
“They will be the users, so we wanted to pick their brains and tap into their creativity,” she said. “We also wanted them to help promote it, because they can get the information out.”
Information on the campaign will be posted on city, chamber of commerce and school Web sites. Gaines asked the students to promote it through their Facebook pages and other social networks.
Information
All the application information is to be submitted online. A link to the Google site will be on the city of Joplin’s Web page, www.joplinmo.org, under the “at your service” menu, said Mark Morris, director of information services for the city.
